Milwaukee Art Museum Denies Using Collection As Collateral

A May article in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated that the Milwaukee Art Museum, in an attempt to raise funds to complete its new Santiago Calatrava-designed addition, had used its art collection as collateral for a $48 million bond issue.

This was to replace the existing line of credit, thereby lowering the interest payments on which the museum reportedly spent about 20% of its budget last year, after it took a $45 million line of credit last autumn from a consortium of four banks.

In an official statement, Executive Director
Christopher
Goldsmith
Christopher Goldsmith
responded: "The Milwaukee Art Museum denies the statement in the Journal Sentinel that we've offered its collection as unequivocally not true. The Milwaukee Art Museum has not and will not use its collection as collateral for any loan at all."

The reason for the borrowing was apparently the rising cost of the addition. Although the museum had repeatedly stated that it would not go beyond $100 million, the Journal Sentinel was given a new figure of $120 million by
Donald
Baumgartner
Donald Baumgartner
, president of the board of trustees.